Encouraging velo-commuting

I always enjoy Dr. Hamermesh's succinct economics posts; this one from a few days ago discusses an incentive to bicycle-commuting (or, more specifically, bicycle ownership by employees of a company) in the Netherlands. The deal there is $750 pre-tax, once every three years.

A similar subsidy in the U.S. seems like a good idea. It's common for companies in urban areas to offer a payroll deduction for car-parking or public transit passes; I assume, but don't know, that this is because there's some method in the tax code to pay for this before income taxes are withheld.

$250 per year (say, $1500 to build and maintain for 6 years a loaded-up touring bike with racks, bags and Spy Hunter -worthy guns and oil slick for negotiating rush-hour traffic) seems like a reasonable cap. Pre-tax dollars are equivalent to about a 10-20% discount, depending on how much one actually shovels out to the IRS. If one worked for a hip, modern European corporation, maybe said company would be hip and modern enough to put up a matching 20% for the brand value of having a parking lot full of shiny new bicycles.